The Internet Defense League (IDL), an organization dedicated to keeping the internet open, officially kicked off its efforts today with a conference call that included several members of the tech industry and a handful of U.S. congressmen.

Hopefully, the days are long gone when a U.S. Senator could get away with saying the internet “is a series of tubes.” Ron Wyden, the Democratic U.S. Senator from Oregon, tried to put that image behind him as he became the first politician to talk on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Monday.